Buyer Beware

Internet bidding sites have been spreading like forest mushrooms after a warm rain in late May recently. E-Bay has almost become an afterthought.

It all began when people decided, for example, that to sell a car as a trade-in when buying a spanking new vehicle is shortsighted. The dealer offers you a price. That price will, in the best of cases, cut into the new car's price but, eventually, you'll find out that car dealers aren't in the business for your beautiful (insert colour here) eyes.

This realization (and not only about cars) has led to all kinds of lists and sites that let you sell your older product (or buy one) for prices considerably more to your liking. You're not supporting a dealer's overhead, after all (this brings us back to cars, but only because they're such an easy example).

But the lengths some of the bidding sites go to these days must raise an eyebrow or two.

Maybe you've picked up the phone recently to hear the following recording or something like it:

"Are you more than $10,000 in debt? We can help! Press #1 now to get connected with one of our agents and they can help cut you're debt in half for only a quarter of the cost."

Well, unfortunately a lot of these debt reduction agencies are nowhere near who they claim to be and most end up costing you money instead of waiving your debts. This is why The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has issued a consumer warning against those telemarketing calls and advertisements claiming to come from debt reduction agencies or anyone who claims to provide "debt reduction," "debt relief," "debt settlement" or "debt renegotiation."

"Unfortunately, people do not always see the benefits that debt reduction companies lead them to expect-and some people wind up even deeper in debt than they were before," says FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke. "If an offer to reduce your debts seems too good to be true, it probably is."

The usual setup promises that the company can work out a deal with your creditors so that you're able to pay back only a small percentage of what you actually owe for "pennies on the dollar." It's quite the offer, but it may actually turn into a Faustian bargain.

Related Links:

• Debt Settlement or Credit Counseling?
• What is Debt Settlement?
• It's Never Too Late to Get On Top of Your Debt
• Debt Reduction: Five Steps to Freedom

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For more than 10 years I have owned two timeshare properties, paying roughly $11,000 for each of them. One of them, The Manhattan Club in New York, is under a class-action lawsuit because owners like myself are fed up with obscene maintenance fees and the inability to book when we want to stay. The second one, Silver Lake in Orlando, Fla., is a place that I've never visited, choosing instead to use the points for exchanges into other properties in the RCI timeshare network. Its maintenance fees have also increased every year since I've owned it. Many timeshare owners lament their purchases for one reason or another. If you've been invited to a timeshare presentation, here are five things to keep in mind when you're confronted with the hard sell that you will surely face.

All us deal hunters and freebie hounds have heard the stories: There are people out there who can walk into a grocery store and walk out with hundreds of dollars worth of food using nothing but coupons and their own penchant for organization. The rest of us are left to wallow in resentment, since we know deep down we don't have the discipline for those rewards. Then that resentment is followed by a certain brand of consummerist backlash. "These people are going too far. Do they really need two hundred deoderants?"

Shows like TLC's Extreme Couponing seem to do nothing but fan those flames among us average shoppers. Yet, when you see stay at home mom Joanie Demer of McKinleyville, CA buy $638.64 worth of groceries for $2.64, there's a skeptiscm that doesn't really believe that this 98% savings is possible. Still, we all want a piece of that don't we? We all would be extreme couponers if it didn't take such dedication.

Still, is it really possible to pull it off? The show only answers that question in the affirmative for the American audience, but you hardly ever hear of extreme couponers hauling wheelbarrels full of product out of a Safeway or a Loblaws. Walletpop wanted to find out why that was and what we discovered is that there are still tricks to saving with coupons in this country, but not to a degree that's going to allow the neighbours to shop out of your garage.

Oh, you think as you gaze into a, say, exclusive car showroom, oh, if only I won a lottery! Why, then I'd be able to buy several of these shiny things, one for each member of my extended family, and I'd still have enough left to go for a sumptuous dinner at my local fast-food eatery!

And then you get an e-mail, usually from a country whose name you hear for the first time in your life, telling you that you've just won loads of money. Sweepstakes, lottery, you name it. Of course, the message says, first you've got to pay taxes due, and then, we'll release the cash.

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If you thought that signing up for inclusion on the Non-Call List would get you of the telemarketers' hook, you might have found out by now it didn't.

While, granted, offering goods and services over the telephone is a legitimate endeavour, many amongst us view it rather as harassment – especially when the phone rings while you're otherwise engaged, or when it rings and all you hear is silence after you've picked it up. On some occasions, the silence is interrupted after about 30 seconds by a female voice that says, with a certain degree of malevolence, "Good bye," getting your level of adrenaline even higher.

If you can get hold of experts who know how to do this kind of testing, you might find out that many of the calls originate outside of any Canadian government agency's jurisdiction. Some tropical islands seem to be the favourite spots for some telemarketers. None of these islands has anything to do with Canada, except having a phone network that can reach and touch someone north of the 49^th parallel.

Can somebody do something about it?

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You're such a swell guy, why don't we give you a credit card, all shiny and new, with perks galore? And don't you worry one bit, you're pre-approved, just fill in this and that and those things over there.

Most of us have got such mail at least once a year. For others, a week isn't over if we don't get at least one such offer.

What should we make of it? If it's unaddressed, should we ditch it forthwith? And if it's addressed, and not only that, addressed directly and properly to us, should we bother opening the envelope? Or should we write on it "Return To Sender, Address Unknown, No Such Number, No Such Zone," just like Elvis used to sing?

Or are we going to miss out on something perfectly great?

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Some of you may remember with horror the melamine-tainted wheat gluten and rice protein from China that found it's way into more than 100 pet food products in 2007.

Cherished family pets died eating these products and it was to be hoped that after the U.S. prosecuted those responsible for importing adulterated and mislabeled food, another such scenario could be avoided.

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Quite a few Canadians entertain idle thoughts about how to break the ancient saying about taxes and death being the only certainty we've got in life. In fact, they want to avoid paying taxes and – at the same time – to survive to tell the tale.

And there have been a number of myths trying to prove you can do it and get away with it.

Here's the second part of a very sad myth-breaking compilation.

We've covered three such myths in the previous installment.

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Please give, this is a worthy cause. You can help humanity by donating to ... well, it is true that charity is an important part of our social fabric and that, on more occasions than many would even think of imagining, charitable organizations exceed whatever a government can provide by a country mile.

Many would assert that this is how it should be, and this is not the forum to debate this.

This is the forum to establish whether you can find out in advance, before parting with your hard-earned dollars, whether the organization that does the asking is really performing the help it says it is performing.

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